Photo Depicting Lynching Was Part Of Chain Restaurant Decor

By:Video by Bill Sorem, text by Michael McIntee | March 10, 2016

A decorative table with a photo showing two black men being lynched in Texas has been removed from Joe’s Crab Shack in Roseville after the Minneapolis NAACP called a press conference outside the chain restaurant Thursday afternoon.

The NAACP says Wednesday night two African American diners, Tyrone Williams and Chauntyll Allen were about to eat at the restaurant when they spotted the photo embedded inside of a customized table. The caption next to one of the black lynching victims read “All I said was that I didn’t like the gumbo.”

After googling the names of one of the lynching victims in the picture and finding out that the photo was indeed legitimate, Williams and Allen contacted the restaurant manager who apologized and offered them a free meal. They turned it down. “We will no longer be eating at any Joe’s Crab Shack that supports White Supremacy and racism,” said Williams.

Tyrone Williams

Photo embedded in a table at Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant in Roseville, MN depicting a Texas lynching of two black men with a cartoon balloon added that says “All I said was ‘I didn’t like the gumbo.’”

“I don’t understand why they think this is some kind of joke, the trauma we endured on our black body,” said Allen.

Allen, who is an African American studies major, immediately recognized the photo as a lynching. “After we left the manager did call back and he wanted to try and clear up the situation by saying that this was an execution rather than a lynching. I had to somewhat explain to him that back in those days they often put small crimes on African Americans so that they could justify this glorified image that they were about to produce in front of people.”

The problem is probably not limited to just the Roseville restaurant. Allan says her friend in Los Angeles told her she had seen a picture of a different lynching displayed in another Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant table.

Allen says if the person who designs the tables for the restaurants had the “mindset to pick that particular picture, I’m sure they picked quite a few more that were similar. They want to uphold the white supremacy ideal and therefor they’re going to spread it throughout the nation. It’s not just going to be in one table in one spot.”

The Minneapolis NAACP is demanding an immediate apology from the corporate offices of Joe’s Crab Shack, an immediate removal of any racial-offensive imagery from its restaurants in Minnesota and around the world, and a donation to a local community-based organization that serves African American youths and teens.

A manager at the restaurant told Allen that the offending table has been removed. The restaurant manager also told The UpTake that information about the incident has been passed along to Ignite Restaurant Group corporate offices in Texas.

ABC News contacted the Death Penalty Information Center about the lynching and it is documented as a legal execution. However a spokeswoman for the center told ABC News that it’s important to note that “death penalty laws” were very different from today’s. The center is a nonprofit organization promoting informed discussion of the death penalty.

ABC News says Williams, Allen and the Minneapolis NAACP said they stand by calling the photograph a “lynching.”

“This disturbing incident that occurred at Joe’s Crab Shack, demonstrates that racism is alive and well in this country,” said Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds. “It is sickening to know that someone would make a mockery of black men being savagely lynched and then use that imagery for decorative purposes in a restaurant.”

Pastor Danny Givens of Above Every Name Ministries added some perspective. “We would never walk into any franchise establishment and see jokes depicting images from the holocaust . You would never see that”

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Michael McIntee is a former network TV news executive with more than 30 years of broadcasting experience. He began his broadcasting career at the University of Minnesota's student radio station. He is an expert producer, writer, video editor who has a fondness for new technology but denies that he is a geek. More about Michael McIntee »

2 thoughts on “Photo Depicting Lynching Was Part Of Chain Restaurant Decor”

Restaurants love to use photographs and art that summons a sense of nostalgia and remembrance among their clientele. Restaurants like “The Cracker Barrel,” “Chilis,” “The Cotton Patch,” etc… are renowned for such decor.

I guess some Republicans thought “Joe’s Crab Shack” would be the perfect venue to celebrate the ‘good ole days’ of Jim Crow hangings.

Or maybe it was a simple Bill O’Reilly, ‘Fox News-y’ type of oversight … which, wink-wink, occur on a daily basis.

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